Wistar’s Graduate Student Pratik Bhojnagarwala Awarded the Abraham Schlussel Women’s Health Fellowship Award for Ovarian Cancer Research

Pratik Bhojnagarwala is a third-year graduate student in the Cancer Biology Program jointly administered by Wistar and the University of the Sciences. Currently, he’s carrying out thesis work in the Wistar lab of Dr. David Weiner, focusing on designing novel DNA-encoded immunotherapies against cancer. These include monoclonal antibodies and bi-specific antibodies as well as therapeutic cancer vaccines.

Women’s health issues are close to Pratik’s heart as his family has a history of breast and uterine cancers. He believes synthetic DNA is a powerful platform and is excited to continue learning and applying it to advance immunotherapies for ovarian cancer.

“I have designed and developed various monoclonal and bi-specific antibodies that target different tumor antigens expressed on advanced brain cancers and ovarian cancers,” said Bhojnagarwala. “I’m also developing vaccines that target specific mutations that are expressed only on tumors, which would advance development of highly personalized therapy for cancer patients.”

Pratik’s long-term goals are to become part of a team involved in bringing novel cancer immunotherapies through clinical trials and eventually to patients.